Opinion -- Would you mix inset drawers and overlay doors in the same set of cabinets

[George Bokros]

I am going to be building a closet organizer for our master bedroom closet. I am in the design stage now and at this point am considering inset drawers and overlay doors for the organizer.

Opinions, would you mix overlay doors and inset drawers in the design.

Thanks

[Larry Frank]

I do not think I would mix the two types.

[Hayes Rutherford]

No rules but not normally. I could see regular overlay and a couple of inset drawers with some nice burl. But it all depends on your design.

[Matt Day]

Likely not, unless you were trying to distinguish one part from another like top and bottom or something. And even then probably not.

[Mel Fulks]

The only reason I can think of to mix them would be an unusual number of shallow drawers in the same area. Might make it easier to find stuff and waste less space between drawers. Wouldn't do it to "be something different".

[Martin Wasner]

I've got a customer that does a lot of mixing. The last job had three different species, and five different door styles. And, a combination of inlay and full overlay. They kitchen had paint grade, raised panel quarter sawn white oak, and a bizarre wrapped full overlay rift sawn white oak island. It works.

The golf room of the house I'm currently working on has a bar in it that is inset, raised panel walnut, there's a couple of doors that are getting glass that I feel are well outside the parameters of what an inset door should be for size, so they are going to be overlay. I don't like doing it, but they are huge and I know they will never sit nice with tight tolerances. I'm not sure how it's going to look.

[Martin Wasner]

As a rule, I wouldn't.

[Roy Harding]

As a rule - no, I wouldn't. BUT - perhaps there's a unique design out there where it would work.

[glenn bradley]

I would have to see the whole design. To do so would be for a specific, purposeful, look. I guess it could be done in a way that wouldn't just look plain wrong but I am having trouble visualizing it.

[Yonak Hawkins]

Hey, it's all experimentation. It could turn out to be a very useful and/or attractive innovation. I could imagine an inset drawer in an overlay door face. Mix and match may not be a problem as long as there is a plan, system or consistency. As always .. strictly my 2¢.

[Peter Quinn]

My last boss used to design things for his own house that occasionally had beaded inset drawers in parts of an elevation and partial inset partial overlay as the top drawer or for an accent on a limited section to set it off from the whole. Usually the overlay portion of the drawer fronts had 3/8" to 1/2" projection and some sort of ogee edge detail. It was something he pulled from 18th century furniture, first time I saw the plans it sounded wrong to me but proved to be very aesthetically pleasing. It does give the work a very "period" formal look, looked great in his post and beam wide plank floor salt box, I could see it looking out of place in the wrong house.

[Rick Potter]

In this case, I would say the customer is never wrong.

[eugene thomas]

thinking would not have problem if all the doors where same and all drawers where same. if mix and match might look crazy.

[Fred Heenie]

I would not, by design, mix overlay and inset. That said, it IS necessary in some cases. A wall bed requires inset door but may be installed in a room full of overlay door cabinets. The solution is to position the inset door face to project out of the inset opening by the adjacent door thickness. (usually 3/4") By applying a door filler and repositioning the mounting the room has a consistent look with all doors at the same projection. A small gap on the inset door is a must.